A. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and image processing method. The present invention further relates to an image processing apparatus and image processing method using evacuated images for image diagnosis.
B. Background of the Invention
An image processing apparatus used in an image diagnosis apparatus, such as an X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) apparatus, a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) apparatus, and an ultrasound diagnosis apparatus, processes acquired image data in order to display a plurality of images, such as Multi Planar Reconstruction (MPR) images and three-dimensional images.
The MPR image displays an axial image, a coronal image and a sagittal image as three orthogonal cross sections. Further, the MPR image includes various other images, such as an oblique image, double oblique images, and a curved MPR image. The three-dimensional image also includes images generated by many methods, such as a volume rendering method, Maximum Intensity Projection (MIP) method and an averaging method. Consequently, it becomes difficult to simultaneously display all of such various kinds of images in a limited space of a screen for an image diagnosis apparatus.
It has been proposed to evacuate overflowed images from among the acquired image data. The evacuated images are usually stored at an outside area, such as screen corners, away from a normal displaying area of the screen.
It is difficult to directly use the stored evacuation images as reference images for a diagnosis. To use an evacuated image as a reference image for a diagnosis, the evacuated image is moved into a normal displaying area of the screen. To search for a desired image, an operator must then search evacuated images stored in corners of the screen and/or hidden under a displayed image.